


Safe in Our Pillow Fort

by magicsophicorn



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Best Friends, F/F, Swan Queen Week Summer 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2015-07-16
Packaged: 2018-04-09 16:24:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4356110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicsophicorn/pseuds/magicsophicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What the hell have you done to my living room, Swan?"</p><p>Emma turned around slowly. She was pretty sure the massive grin on her face right now was going to be a permanent fixture all weekend.</p><p>"I have made <i>the</i> best pillow fort in the history of ever. Come on, come inside!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Safe in Our Pillow Fort

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Swan Queen Week Day 5 - Best Friend Romance
> 
> Thank you to kuro-and-chan on tumblr for the inspiration for this fic.

Emma balanced her pile of supplies precariously on her raised knee as she rang the doorbell. The whole process was made all the more difficult by her excitement, which had turned her into even more of a fidgety 5 year old child than usual.

"Oh thank god!" she sighed as the door finally opened, "here, take this. And this. And this."

Regina raised an eyebrow as she did as she was told and took the various items Emma was handing to her.

"Emma there is absolutely no way we will be able to eat this much food in one weekend," she said, staring down at the bucket of popcorn and box of donuts in her arms.

Emma grinned.

"Watch me."

Regina groaned and finally stood aside, allowing Emma to enter the house.

"Remind me again how you managed to get me to agree to this?" Regina sighed.

"Well," Emma called over her shoulder as she headed straight to the kitchen with the rest of her goodies (which mostly consisted of copious amounts of alcohol). "As I recall, you lost a bet, your majesty. And probably some of your pride too…"

"Don't remind me," Regina groaned, joining Emma in the kitchen. She dumped the food she was holding unceremoniously on to the counter. "Well then Emma, what now?"

Emma grinned and bounced on the balls of her toes.

"Okay, let's recap. Rules are: this is my weekend, so what I say goes, and we do whatever I want."

Regina looked as if she was sucking on lemons.

"First things first, you need to be properly attired. So go upstairs right now and change into your oldest, comfiest, rattiest, pair of PJs."

Regina sighed.

"Very well, if I must. But what about you, aren't you going to…"

She stopped mid-sentence, her eyes running down Emma's body, presumably for the first time since she had arrived.

"Emma! You went out _in public_ like that? There is truly no hope for you. None."

Emma laughed. She was wearing a threadbare pair of flannel pyjama bottoms and a faded Boston Red Sox t-shirt. After much deliberation, she'd decided that she couldn't get away with going bra-less just yet, but she was definitely going that way the second they settled down for the night. Not that Regina needed to know that. Not yet anyway. There'd probably need to be alcohol involved before that conversation happened, bet or no bet.

"You're damn right I did, and old Mr Cooper next door saw me and everything!"

Emma laughed at Regina's horrified expression.

"Now off you go to change, and I'll get the living room ready."

\-------------------------

Fifteen minutes later (seriously, how long does it take to throw on a pair of PJs for cryin' out loud?), Emma was pretty proud of her handiwork.

"What the hell have you done to my living room, Swan?"

Emma turned around slowly. She was pretty sure the shit-eating grin on her face right now was going to be a permanent fixture all weekend.

"I have made _the_ best pillow fort in the history of ever. Come on, come inside."

Emma darted forward and grabbed Regina's hand, pulling her down towards the gap in the chairs and blankets that served as the entrance and exit to her architectural masterpiece.

The pillow fort took up pretty much the entire room, with sheets over the backs of chairs and up over the TV so that it was inside the fort. Emma had taken every single cushion off all the chairs and put them on the floor so that they covered the entirety of the inside of the fort, turning it into one big squishy bed. Sort of.

"You are such a child," she heard Regina mutter as she crawled into the fort behind Emma. Emma ignored her. She could tell from the tone of voice that Regina was more amused than annoyed.

"The only thing that could make this fort better is fairy lights," Emma said, looking hopefully at Regina.

"No," Regina said, and then as Emma's face fell, "you can do it yourself. I'll supervise."

Emma shut her eyes and scrunched up her face in concentration. She felt the familiar tingle of magic at her fingertips. She opened her eyes to find the cushion in front of her on fire.

Regina sighed.

"On reflection," she said, flicking her wrist to extinguish the fire, and then again to deck the sheet above them in twinkling fairy lights, "perhaps I should do it after all."

Emma huffed.

"I'll get there eventually. I just need to practice."

Regina chuckled.

"You will indeed. Now then, we are in your… fort, and I am wearing my pyjamas despite the fact that it is only 8pm, so what next?"

Emma took a moment to look at Regina then. She was wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a plain white t-shirt. Her face was scrubbed clean of makeup. Emma blinked. Despite the instructions she had given, Emma had fully expected Regina to come back downstairs in a pair of fancy silk pyjamas or something. She would never have guessed that Regina would even own something like this. Seeing Regina like this, it was… She was… It was really something. Emma felt like she had been given a precious gift. She was damn sure no one other than Henry had ever seen Regina in these clothes, so the fact that Regina had allowed Emma to see her like this meant a whole heck of a lot to her.

"Now you drink this wine, I drink this beer, we stuff our faces, and watch trashy films until we fall asleep, preferably in the small hours of the morning."

Emma was aware that she had probably waited a bit too long to reply. She hoped Regina didn't pick her up on it.

"I can't believe this is what you consider having a good time," Regina grumbled, picking up her wine glass and taking a sip.

Emma grinned. This was going to be the best weekend _ever._

\-------------------------

Throughout the entirety of 'Die Hard' Emma found that she couldn't stop glancing at Regina. She just couldn't get over how beautiful she looked in casual clothes and with no makeup on. Of course she looked beautiful in her power suits too, but there was something special, something soft and vulnerable about this look, that Emma just couldn't get enough of.

 _Screw it,_ Emma thought, _I'm going for it._

She scooted closer to Regina and lifted up the brunette's arm, putting it over her own shoulders and snuggling into Regina's side.

Regina's entire body stiffened.

"What are you doing?"

"Snuggling," Emma said, wrapping her own arm over Regina's stomach, "what I say goes, remember? And I say you're my best friend, so it's about damn time we snuggled already."

Regina's body slowly relaxed and Emma hoped she wasn't going to pull away.

"I'm your best friend?" Regina whispered, so softly that Emma almost missed it.

"Well, yeah," Emma said, lifting her head from where it was resting against Regina's chest so that she could look at her, "you didn't already know that?"

"No… I… I…" Regina's eyes were wide, she looked kind of terrified.

Emma chuckled.

"Well, for future reference, if someone chooses to spend time with you over anyone and everything else, and promises to help you find your happy ending no matter what, then chances are that that person probably considers you to be their best friend. Just so you know."

Regina snorted.

"That sounds more like love than friendship to me…"

She made a strangled choking sound as she finished speaking. There was an awkward silence. But despite that, neither woman pulled away from the other.

"Maybe we shouldn't move on to the rom-coms later after all," Emma muttered.

A voice in the back of her mind kept trying to get her to think about what Regina had just said, but she resolutely ignored it.

"Yippee ki-aye motherfucker!" Bruce Willis said on screen. Yes, that's what she should think about instead, Die Hard. Definitely Die Hard. And definitely not her best friend who smelled like apples and cinnamon and who Emma wanted to be happy more than she wanted it for herself. She wasn't going to think about that.

\-------------------------

Emma wasn't sure what had woken her. In fact she was confused because she hadn't even realised that she had fallen asleep. But it was significantly darker than before, and the noises coming from the TV definitely weren't 'Back To The Future', which was the last thing she remembered watching.

She was still curled into Regina's side with her head resting on her chest, and apparently in her sleep she had also thrown a leg over Regina's as well. She was basically attached to the other woman like a limpet.

She felt incredibly relaxed and comforted, and it took her a moment to understand why. Regina was softly stroking her head and running her fingers through Emma's hair with one hand, and the other was resting on Emma's arm that was over Regina's middle and drawling soft little circles on the bare skin with her fingertips.

Emma felt like she was being _cherished._ It felt amazing.

She tried not to move, pretending to still be asleep in an attempt to prolong the moment. She was pretty sure Regina would stop if she thought she was awake.

Emma listened to Regina's heartbeat below her. She would have been happy to stay like this forever and a day.

She could hear the sound of voices from the TV and she tried to work out what Regina was watching.

"Edie… Are you gay?"

"Am I gay? Ha, I'm ecstatic!"

Emma couldn't help the snort that came from her nose at that line. That was a good one. She was definitely going to have to use that one in the future. For some reason she seemed to get asked that question a lot…

Regina's hands instantly stilled.

Emma lifted her head from Regina's chest and looked at her.

"Hey," she whispered.

"Hey," Regina whispered back.

The fairy lights twinkled above them.

Their faces were centimetres apart. Emma felt Regina's fingertips tighten on her arm. She recognised the moment for what it was. Those intense few seconds when the world disappears and a kiss is absolutely inevitable. She thought she should probably be freaking out, but as their faces drew ever closer all she felt was peace.

When their lips met it felt like coming home. It felt like every smile they had ever shared, like every moment of support they had ever shown each other, and even like every playful insult they ever thrown at the other.

Regina was her best friend, and she loved her in every sense of the word.

**Author's Note:**

> The film Regina was watching is Imagine Me & You, for those that didn't get it from that!
> 
> Thanks for reading, please feel free to send me prompts here or on [tumblr](http://magicsophicorn.tumblr.com).


End file.
